The present invention relates to a manufacturing apparatus, and particularly to a manufacturing apparatus that is suitably adapted to a general-purpose bonder as represented by a wire bonder which is designed for fabricating a variety of kinds of lead frames fully automatically and highly efficiently.
Accompanying the trend toward producing diversifying kinds of semiconductor devices such as IC's and LSI's in recent years, it is a tendency to utilize a general-purpose semiconductor manufacturing apparatus which is capable of manufacturing a variety of devices instead of using a special apparatus which manufactures only a single kind of device. For instance, the same tendency holds true even for a pellet bonder for adhering pellets onto lead frames, and for a wire bonder for connecting very fine wires between the pellet and the lead frame; i.e., efforts have been made to improve these apparatuses so that they meet general purposes.
Referring, for example, to the wire bonder, the lead frames (hereinafter referred to as works or workpiece) onto which element pellets are fastened are placed on a bonding stage, the works that are continuously formed are incrementally moved by a feeding mechanism called a frame feeder, and bonding positions on the works are successively set to a position corresponding to a bonding tool, thereby to bond the wires. Here, in order to incrementally feed the works, feed pins on the side of the frame feeder are fitted into positioning holes formed in the works, so that the works are moved as a whole by the feed pins. In this case, the frame feeder is constituted depending upon the kind of works, i.e., depending upon the shape, dimension, and the like of works and, particularly, the feed pins are so constituted as will be adapted to the positioning holes of works.
Therefore, even though it has been demanded to construct apparatuses to meet general purposes as described above, there exists difference in the shapes of works, dimensions, positions of holes, and sizes of holes depending upon the kinds of devices (standards of the lead frames are different among the manufacturers), making it difficult to accomplish correct positioning by the frame feeder for the works of different kinds. With the existing apparatuses of this type, therefore, the bonding stage or the frame feeder are constructed in the form of a unit so as to be exchanged depending upon the kind of devices, to meet general purposes.
With such apparatuses, however, the unit must be exchanged for each change in the kind of devices, involving laborious work for replacement, very cumbersome adjusting operation consuming extended periods of time, and making the operation efficiency and the manufacturing efficiency poor. Moreover, the operator must carry out the manipulation after every change in the kind of devices, making it impossible to operate the apparatus fully automatically.
The technique of wire bonding has been closely disclosed in "Denshi Zairyo", November, 1982, Separate Volume, published by Kogyo Chosakai on Nov. 15, 1982, pp. 163-168.